


Beneath the Surface

by magicianlogician12



Series: You, Me, and the Sea [3]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:21:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25291588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicianlogician12/pseuds/magicianlogician12
Summary: Familiarity implies stability, to Miri, and she ponders what it means when the halls of Proudmoore Keep start to feel familiar.
Series: You, Me, and the Sea [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1832245
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Beneath the Surface

Miri’s feet followed the halls of Proudmoore Keep without thinking, and she considered what it meant.

The last time she frequented any place bigger than–besides–her ship, it was when she still lived at home, centuries ago. Familiarity implied stability, and even more than that, it implied  _ home _ , and that was something too big for Miri to think about when the moon was already approaching the horizon to usher in a new dawn, her eyes burning with fatigue.

Still, despite how exhausted she was–having been delayed by poor weather on their final approach to Boralus itself–her blood was too restless to let her sleep. The rest of her crew had elected to stay aboard the  _ Tide _ and catch up on their lost hours there, but it felt, strangely, too crowded for Miri tonight. On any ship, limited room meant being comfortable with the people you shared that limited room with, but her skin itched and her stomach growled, so she’d gone to Proudmoore Keep instead, liberated a cold pastry from the empty kitchens, and now found her feet unconsciously following the hallways that led to Jaina’s office.

She  _ hoped _ , hoped beyond reason, that it would be empty, because if it was empty then it meant Jaina was probably asleep, and she damn well should be, at this hour, but simultaneously Miri hoped it wasn’t empty, because the night felt somehow too big to wait out alone.

Rounding the last corner while taking a bite out of her cold pastry, Miri saw flickering candlelight under the door and suppressed a groan while some of the tension physically lifted out of her shoulders, adding an extra burst of lightness to her steps. She rapped her knuckles on the door, then leaned against it with one shoulder.

“Who is it?” came Jaina’s voice from within, distracted and absent.

A grin quirked up one side of Miri’s lips. “It’s a surprise.”

There was a pause, where Miri could visualize Jaina’s reaction in her mind’s eye–looking up from whatever she was working on, rolling her eyes, and then– “Come in.”

Using her shoulder to push the door aside, Miri commented, “You didn’t even guess once. You must be tired.”

Parchment was strewn across Jaina’s desk–reports, maps, even miniature replicas of the war table pieces to represent where their forces were currently occupied. There was, Miri noted, a concerning lack of ship models around the area there’d been patrols when last Miri had seen the map.

“Some of our patrols have gone missing,” Jaina confirmed Miri’s suspicions as she took the chair in front of Jaina’s desk, elbows resting on her knees, “and we’re running down possible culprits.”

Miri arched a brow. “Besides the obvious?”

It had been half intended as a joke, but Jaina’s face didn’t change. “Yes. There’s a few options we’re considering, but…” she traced a finger along their worryingly open patrol route, “…we can’t afford to leave that corridor exposed for long.”

“I can take the  _ Tide _ and patrol that route instead.” Miri offered even as the burn behind her eyelids warned her she was nearing her limits.

Jaina was already shaking her head. “No, a single vessel would be far too vulnerable out there. I’m working with the rest of the fleet captains to figure something out, but after Dazar’Alor…”

“I know.” Miri puffed out a breath and let her shoulders slump with it. “Have you been up here all night?”

“We need a plan of action, and–”

“Hands.” Miri held out her hands expectantly, and Jaina reluctantly held them out, but even before taking them Miri could see how they trembled, and shook her head, tightening her fingers around Jaina’s and giving them a squeeze. “Should know better than to try and hide those shaking hands from me, Proudmoore. Let it go for tonight.”

Jaina opened her mouth–presumably to argue the point–but was interrupted by a yawn, long and deep. “There’s no point attempting to convince you otherwise, I don’t think.”

“You’d be correct.” Miri rose from her chair, and Jaina rose in tandem, but Miri let Jaina’s hands go with a jerk of her head towards the hallway beyond. “Go on. I’ll figure something out.”

Bemused, Jaina picked her staff up from the corner. “Have you ever strategized with more than one ship?”

Affronted, Miri raised her brows. “One ship is all I’ve ever needed.”

She didn’t laugh, but Miri caught the edge of a smile as she turned away, and Miri took Jaina’s desk chair instead, pulling up the largest of the ocean maps she’d been using, careful not to disturb the replicas where they represented current patrol patterns, shockingly few now.

It smacked of a mystery, and those had never been Miri’s strong point, but the sea? That, she could handle.

Miri picked up the remnants of her pastry from where she’d set it on the desk, took a bite out of it, and set it down, pointedly not looking at where the gray predawn light began to stream in through the window.

It felt like familiarity, and stability, and home, but the word didn’t feel too big for this cluttered, overfilled office with its simple touches of personality, no different than the well-worn decks of the  _ Tide. _


End file.
